“Through
the Fire” tells the story of former high school basketball phenom and
current Portland Trailblazer Sebastian Telfair. Though supposed to be
in the same vein as “Hoop Dreams,” this film lacks the dramatic flair
of its predecessor.

Sebastian Telfair was a Coney Island basketball star at famed
Lincoln High School a few years ago who had committed to play at the
University of Louisville. The film follows Telfair over the course of
that year, his third high school city championship and his decision to
turn pro and declare for the NBA draft. While there seems to be tragedy
and hardship in Telfair’s life, it is given only a cursory glance and
at times it disappears completely. For example, there is often a man
around who seems to be the father of at least one of his brothers, if
not Telfair himself, yet we are never told who this man is. In fact, if
anything, the filmmakers do Telfair a disservice by making it seem as
though, while his surroundings are tough and somewhat violent, his
future was never truly in doubt. This ends up cheapening Telfair’s
accomplishment, which was to be drafted thirteenth overall, even over
the many questions that surrounded his talent and ability to make the
jump to the NBA from high school. The focus of director Jonathan Hock’s
film is the sheer weight of Telfair’s decision between going to college
or turning pro. While the film is invariably sunny in its outlook, it
does make the decision seem a bit of a no-brainer, especially when
Telfair has to take into consideration the welfare of his mother and
nine siblings. The discussion of money, the idea of basketball being
the escape from the projects, the offer of a lucrative shoe contract
even before he made his final decision, all help to heavily tilt
Telfair toward the NBA. More than anything, the film ends up being a
study in the business of professional sports and how it plays with the
hopes and dreams of the youth, but especially those who consider pro
sports to be their golden ticket. Indeed, the title of the film belies
its rather foregone conclusion.

The bonus features are nice for a documentary like this and there are
many of them. There are extended interview sessions with Telfair,
Louisville coach Rick Pitino and others, some of which were conducted
after the timeline of the film. The interviews can be both tedious and
refreshing, depending on your mood while watching them. My favorite one
is with Telfair’s older brother Jamel Thomas, whose own story is
perhaps even more compelling than his younger brother’s. The playground
and game highlights are fun, each really taking the opportunity to show
Telfair’s abilities in uninterrupted form, though at times the editing
choices are suspect. The director’s commentary is a bit distracting and
doesn’t give enough additional information to be truly necessary,
though the addition of cinematographer Alastair Christopher adds a raw
and honest look at the pleasures and difficulties of the shoot. In a
documentary, the real information is, or should be, provided in the
film itself. What might be compelling about documentary commentary are
tidbits about locations, difficulty with filming particular scenes and
the like, but Hock instead talks about fairly pedantic things that
aren’t really worth listening to for the full 103 minutes. The deleted
scenes are helpful, as they provide a larger context for the overall
film and these, together with the extended interviews, give a greater
sense as to the lives of these people. Also included is the Q&A
session with Telfair and Hock after the film’s premiere at the 2005
Tribeca Film Festival. Like all the bonus features, it helps to present
a fuller picture of the life and times of the people the film is about.
Most fascinating is the revelation that Hock had set out to do a
documentary on the entire Lincoln basketball team and its quest to win
three city championships in a row, but then decided that Telfair
himself was the more compelling story. These features provide the basis
for any sort of “making of” featurette, as it is difficult to show
behind the scenes footage on a documentary, since on a documentary,
there is (supposedly) no difference between reality and the end
product. What you see is what you get in the increasingly popular world
of documentary film and television. One additional feature of note is
an excerpt from host company ESPN’s “The Life” with Telfair’s cousin,
NBA star and former Coney Island resident Stephon Marbury. It is
interesting to see and hear Marbury’s own account, however brief, of
his own path from the courts of Coney Island to the hardwood of the
NBA. The footage was shot on video and looks crisp, if a bit digitally
grainy at times. The sound mix uses the 5.1 channels to greatest effect
when adding the score and crowd effects, but overall, it isn’t anything
special, since it is comprised mostly of dialogue and backgrounds.

“Through the Fire” is a misnamed though overall pleasing enough
documentary, accessible to all sorts of people, whether your interest
is in basketball, documentary filmmaking, New York, social science or
simply human drama. Presented here in as crisp and clean a form as it
is likely to ever be seen and with a plethora of special features, the
DVD is worth a look.

more details

sound format:

English 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound

aspect ratio:

1.78:1

special features:

Deleted
Scenes; Extended Interviews; Playground and Game Highlights; Q&A
from Tribeca Film Festival; Director’s Commentary; French and Spanish
Subtitles